Bitter

I can feel his smile against my skin as he kisses down my neck. “You’re going to hate yourself once you realize what you were missing out on while spending more time at this damn wedding when you could’ve been naked in my bed.”

I suck in a sharp breath as my heart leaps in my chest. His hand slides from my hip to inbetween my legs where he gently rubs his fingers over my dress. I finally come to my senses as I realize if I don’t stop this now, we are going to get caught doing God knows what in this coat closet.

I push his chest back and glare at him. “I need thirty minutes at least to casually say goodbye.”

He smirks at me. “Make it twenty.” Then he turns and walks out of the closet so we aren’t seen leaving at the same time. I take a few minutes to gather myself before peeking out to see if anyone is nearby.

The coast is clear, so I walk back outside. All of the important events are over, so now it’s basically just drinking and dancing. I scan the area for Reed until my eyes find him. I open my eyes wide in surprise as I see him talking with my mom.

I’m super curious, so I walk over to them to see what they are talking about. The closer I get though, the more I can see that Reed is upset. He’s making that face where if you didn’t know him well, you wouldn’t be able to tell, but I know that face on him. He’s not happy, but he’s hiding it.

My protective mode immediately turns on. I can tell my voice is already angry toward my mom. “What’s going on here?” I ask.

Reed gives me a crooked smile. “Your mom here was just telling me how they are going to be staying with us for the next couple days.”

“Excuse me?” I ask, almost choking on my own spit.

My mom looks at me casually like it’s not a big deal. “Yeah, the house was fumigated today. They were supposed to come yesterday, but they were delayed a day. They told us we need to stay out of the house for twenty four hours, but I don’t trust that. I don’t want to breathe in those chemicals. We’ll just stay tonight and tomorrow night.”

Reed speaks up then, desperate to find a way out of this. “We can get you a hotel,” he suggests.

She waves that off. “We couldn’t do that. Wren is always telling us how she doesn’t have any money right now.”

I roll my eyes because I am not always telling her that. I barely even talk to her, so I can’t even be always telling her anything. The most annoying part though is that she says it like she doesn’t believe me. She thinks I’m trying to hide all this money that I don’t have from her.

Reed seems to notice as well and comes to my defence just like he always does. “I’ll cover it. I’m in a slightly better place than Wren.” He winks my way.

My mom persists. “Oh, don’t be ridiculous. We’ll be fine in your guest room.”

“Mom! Reed is in the guest room!” I respond.

She shrugs. “Don’t you still have the sleeper sofa?”

I laugh. “Yeah, in my room.”

She still doesn’t seem to care. “Reed won’t mind. Will you darling?”

I glare at him, which seems to make him want to annoy me more. “Sure, no problem!” he smiles at her. Smiles! What the actual fuck!

“Your dad is getting tired, so unless you want to give us a key, we’ll need you to leave soon,” she says.

Like hell I’m giving her a key. “Yeah, whatever. We’re saying our goodbyes soon.”

She walks away, and I turn to Reed. “Fucking traitor,” I mutter so only he can hear.

His smile grows. “You weren’t going to say no anyway.”

“How do you know?” I huff.

He leans closer. “Because you’re a people pleaser. You don’t want to cause drama because the sooner this is over, the sooner you can avoid seeing them for a while.”

I cross my arms over my chest. “Stop fucking knowing everything about me!”

He leans forward and whispers in my ear. “It’s too bad you didn’t have a backbone. I was really looking forward to learning the only thing I don’t know about you yet tonight.”

He smirks as he pulls back, and I smile back. “Well, I know you didn’t know that sleeper couch is about as comfy as a cement floor, but thanks for agreeing to stay on it. You know, to keep the peace for me and all,” I say sarcastically.

He laughs then smiles sweetly at me. “Ride home with me.”

“Hm?” I pinch my lips together. “How would I get my car?”

He grins. “I’ll make mom have a service drive it down. I’ll tell her you had too many drinks.”

I laugh. “That’s ridiculous.”

He raises an eyebrow at me. “Let the woman take care of you. Who knows how long this sympathy phase of hers is going to last.”

I laugh harder and then agree because I really want to spend the drive home with Reed. We haven’t had that much time recently to just chill and talk. We spend the next twenty minutes saying our final goodbyes, and then I am walking out with Reed to his truck.

I hop up into the passenger side, and then the moment I shut the door, the silence falls over us. Something about being officially alone right now feels very heavy. I nervously glance his way and give a quick shy smile and look away. I glance back again a few more times, and he gives me the same awkward look.

It feels different between us now. Neither one of us is trying to fight what we want to happen. We haven’t been alone since that shift in our relationship.

He lets out a big sigh. “So want to completely ignore what we should talk about?”

I laugh, but then I smile gratefully at him. “Absolutely. We can just be two friends driving home together. No big deal.”

He shakes his head and laughs too as he starts up the truck and turns the radio on to get rid of some of the awkward silence. “Fine. Distract me.”

“Distract you from what?” I ask.